Hamilton Wristwatches were Manufactured Here for 100 Years

Lancaster Watch Company, Lancaster Pennsylvania

Date added: January 06, 2025

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Pennsylvania
Industrial

Tower of the 1874-1875 Building Two (1982)

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Founded as the Adams and Perry Watch Company in 1874, the business was the first to mass-produce watches in Lancaster County. Soon after being reorganized in 1877, the company made the first American watch movements employing the double escapement mechanism. After the firm was incorporated as the Hamilton Watch Company in 1892, it became one of the country's leading manufacturers of timekeepers. Within the three generations following 1892, Hamilton Watch gained a national reputation for three innovations: the development of accurate watches for railroad conductors and inspectors; the production of chronometers in World War I and World Ward II; and the introduction of the world's first electric wristwatch.

In 1893, the Hamilton Watch Company was marketing accurate watches for the use of railroad personnel. By 1903, the slogan "Hamilton - The Railroad Timekeeper of America" and "The Watch of Railroad Accuracy" testified to Hamilton's reputation. In both the First and Second World Wars, the Hamilton Watch Company produced marine chronometers.

Most important were the 11,000 Model 21 Marine Chronometers made during World War II; the Navy considered them to be the "world's most accurate portable timepiece." In January 1957, the company introduced the world's first electric wristwatch, following years of experimentation.

As architecture, the buildings represent an expansive and harmonious assemblage with an interesting combination of architectural styles. The Second Empire Style of the 1874 building designed by C. L. Stiles has left its mark in the two clock towers with mansard roofs, while the prevailing character of most of the buildings is that of late nineteenth or early twentieth-century warehouse/mill-type buildings. The Art Deco Style is evident in the 1941 Office Building, and some influence of the International Style may be perceived in the western addition completed in 1963. This balance between stylistic diversity and unity of the whole gives the architecture of the HMW Buildings a unique character.

The predecessor industry for the HMW Industries, the Adams and Perry Watch Company was organized on June 10^th, 1874 in the Lancaster Board of Trade Rooms with a capital of $75,000. The named founders of the watch company possessed impressive credentials for launching the new business: Mr. Adams had experience as a business promoter, and Edwin H. Perry of Boston was a noted designer of watches. The two chief local men associated with the founding of the company were the Lancaster entrepreneur Abraham Bitner and the Lancaster jeweler, silversmith, and watchmaker, Godfried M. Zahm. On September 26^th, 1874, the new business was incorporated as the "Lancaster Watch Company."

Construction of the first brick factory building, designed by C. L. Stiles of Chicago, commenced about the time of incorporation. The site of the building, then in a rural setting along the Columbia Pike about five blocks beyond Lancaster City's western most residential development, had been purchased by Abraham Bitner's brother, C. Augustus Bitner, in several transactions in 1873 and 1874. On November 14^th, 1874, C. Augustus Bitner and his wife Rebecca gave the site of the building then under construction, a tract of three acres and forty-six perches, to the Adams and Perry Watch Company.

The factory was opened in July 1875. Almost immediately, the business was plagued by adverse finances. Apparently, many of the local artisans and suppliers of materials for the building had not been paid; in June 1876, two Mechanics' Liens were filed against the Lancaster Watch Company. On June 10^th, 1876, the Adams and Perry Watch Company transferred its interests by a Deed of Assignment to The Lancaster Watch Company. Even this measure was unsuccessful, for on July 12^th, 1876, all the property of the Lancaster Watch Company was sold to Dr. Henry Carpenter of Lancaster for $31,000. At that time, it was revealed that the total investment in the property had been about $120,000.

In the purchase of July 1876, Dr. Carpenter was actually acting as the agent for those business interests seeking to reorganize. By August 1^st, 1877, the company was again operating. On September, 14^th, 1877, the company was re-formed under the official name of the Lancaster Pennsylvania Watch Company, with capital of about $95,000. However, the factory was not re-opened until October 1878; problems were then compounded by an eight-month delay in the marketing of new watches.

Repeated attempts at revitalization were, at best, only partially successful. The firm was yet again reorganized as a stock company on April 1^st, 1883. Three years later, this company was named the Keystone Standard Watch Company. At this time, the Keystone Watch Company employed one hundred seventy five workers, with an annual payroll of about $84,000. Writing of this firm in 1887, W. U. Hensel stated, most honestly, that " … uniform good fortune and financial success have not always attended its operations … " Hensel's words may well have been prophetic, for the Keystone Standard Watch Company ended in bankruptcy in 1890. Two years later, the holdings of the defunct business were auctioned at sheriff sale.

At this time, a group of prominent Lancaster businessmen saw an opportunity to establish a viable enterprise on the site which had been plagued with a succession of failures for nearly seventeen years. Seventeen subscribers met on October 18^th, 1892 with Lancaster's John W. B. Bausman as acting president. They elected a board of five directors, including John F. Brimmer, Harry B. Cochran, George M. Franklin, Peter T. Watt, and Charles D. Rood. Articles of Incorporation were filed with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on November 18^th, 1892, and the new business was officially incorporated as the Hamilton Watch Company on December 14^th, 1892. The company was named for Andrew Hamilton, a wealthy Philadelphia attorney of the early 1700's, who was one of the founders of Lancaster.

Having purchased the land, building, and machinery of the former Keystone Standard Watch Company at the sale in 1892, the Hamilton Watch Company quickly commenced operations, and full production was underway early in 1893. The first product of the Hamilton Watch Company was a size 18 watch with 17 jewels. By 1896, the firm was producing a very accurate, high-quality size 18 watch with 21 jewels. It was this watch that rapidly won favor with railroad conductors, inspectors, and station masters; by the turn of the century, this model was popularly designated "The Railroad Timekeeper of America." By the opening years of this century, Hamilton was also manufacturing watches in sizes 16, 12, 6, and 0.

During the First World War, the production of the Hamilton Watch Company began to diversify. Wristwatches were produced, and they proved to be more convenient for American soldiers in Europe than the traditional pocket watches. Some contemporaries believed that the use of wristwatches by soldiers in World War I helped to popularize this form of portable timepiece. Another innovation of the Hamilton Watch Company during World War I was the production of tachometers for the United States Air Service (later called the Air Force). Possibly the most important development for the company at this time was the manufacture of the Model 36 Chronometer for the United States Navy and the United States Shipping Board. Although only 970 units of the Model 36 Chronometer were made, it sustained its reputation as a high-quality, precision timekeeper.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Hamilton Watch Company began its far-reaching corporate expansion. The presidents of the company who led this policy of corporate mergers were Charles F. Miller (in office from 1910 to 1931), and Frank C. Beckwith (in office from 1931 to 1939). The Illinois Watch Company of Springfield, Illinois was purchased by Hamilton in 1928. In the following year, the Hamilton-Sangamo Corporation was formed by the merger of the Hamilton Watch Company and the Sangamo Electric Company of Springfield, Illinois. This new business concentrated on marketing newly-developed electric clocks; it was sold to General Time Instruments, Inc. in 1931. By 1924 the Lancaster factory of the Hamilton Watch Company employed 900 workers, with a daily production of between four hundred fifty and five hundred watches. In 1929, Hamilton's annual sales totaled $5,769,000. The prosperity which had been envisioned by the founders in 1874 had at last been realized.

During World War II, the Hamilton Watch Company specialized in the manufacture of chronometers. The most important of these chronometers was the Model 21 Marine Chronometer, 85 size, with 14 jewel movement. Considered to be a masterpiece of engineering, this chronometer was developed in response to the loss of European suppliers of chronometers at the beginning of World War II. The majority of the Model 21 Marine Chronometers were made between 1941 and 1944, with total output being in excess of 11,000 units. Other chronometers produced during the war included the Model 221 Marine Chronometer, and the Model 221 Individual Orbit Chronometer. The latter was introduced in 1944, and was designed specifically for ships whose routes frequently crossed the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. This extensive production of chronometers, particularly the noted Model 21 Marine Chronometer, caused the United States Navy to praise Hamilton's instruments as being the "world's most accurate portable timekeepers."

In the 1950s and the 1960s, the processes of corporate mergers and diversification increased. In January 1957, the Hamilton Watch Company introduced the world's first electric wristwatch. In many respects, this was the most revolutionary change in portable timekeeping since the 1500s. Two years later, Hamilton acquired the Wallace Silversmiths of Wallingford, Connecticut. In the same year, Hamilton became international when it purchased the firm of A. Huguenin Fils, S.A. of Bienne, Switzerland. By the mid-1960s Hamilton was marketing watches under three brand names - Hamilton, Buren, and Vantage. The Buren Watch Company of Buren, Switzerland had been acquired in 1966, and the Standard Time Corporation of St. Croix, Virgin Islands was acquired five years earlier.

As an outgrowth of products manufactured during World War II, Hamilton developed a Military Products Division for the specific production of fuses and timing devices. Another facet of diversification and specialization of the 1950s was the formation of the Hamilton Precision Metals Division. This department rapidly rose to importance in making alloys and magnets for communication satellites.

The increasing specialization of production and the complex diversification of corporate holdings led to the formal separation of the Hamilton Watch Company and HMW Industries. On May 16^th, 1974, the sale of the Hamilton Watch Company, then a subsidiary of HMW Industries, to S.S.I.H. of Switzerland was announced. This transfer effectively marked the end of the manufacture of watches on the site used for that purpose since 1875. In April 1980, HMW Industries announced that it was moving all operations to the then-vacant Hess' Department Store Building on the northeast corner of North Queen Street and East Orange Street in Lancaster.

Two Lancastrians, Abraham Bitner and Godfried M. Zahm, were instrumental in the founding of the Lancaster Watch Company.

Abraham Bitner

Abraham Bitner, son of Abraham Bitner and his wife Elizabeth Porter Bitnery, was born in Lancaster City on January 22^nd, 1836; his father was a carpenter and chairmaker. In 1847, the younger Abraham Bitner's older brothers, C. Augustus Bitner and John R Bitner (1826-1897) established the firm of John R. Bitner Bro., also simply called Bitner Brothers. This business operated the first fast freight lines on the railroad between Philadelphia and Lancaster. In 1849, at the age of thirteen, Abraham Bitner commenced working for his brothers, and soon operated freight cars by himself. From 1857 to 1861, he was in charge of the Philadelphia office of the Bitner Brothers.

In 1861, Abraham Bitner commenced a more diversified business career. He established the partnership of Acheson Bitner in the grain and flour business, and he also bought a farm in Warwick Township. Abraham Bitner opened a coal yard in Lancaster in 1865, and two years later he built the City's first coal chute on the siding of the Reading and Columbia Railroad. In 1872 he sold this firm, and then purchased 136 acres of land on the New Jersey coast. Together with his brother John R. Bitner, he developed this tract into the noted summer resort called Ocean Beach.

Two years later he was elected a director of the New Egypt and Farmingdale Railroad Company; later he bought the entire company, reorganized it, and sold it to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. At this same time, Bitner was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Lancaster City, plus being the developer for several prime commercial sites near Penn Square.

Abraham Bitner was associated with the Lancaster Watch Company from 1875 to 1890. In fact, his first contact with the new business took place in 1874, when his brother C. Augustus Bitner gave the land for the factory site. For most of the fifteen years following 1875, Abraham Bitner was the Manager of the Lancaster Watch Company. He was considered to be the prime mover behind the reorganization of 1877. However, his most lasting contributions to the industry were a number of inventions for watches which he patented. These inventions included the following: the improved safety pinion, co-patented on August 12^th, 1879; a new watch dial, patented April 5^th, 1881; a hand-setting and stem-winding device, patented July 25^th, 1882; a patent compound regulator, patented October 10^th, 1882, and a dust-proof watch plate, patented November 25^th, 1882.

Related to Bitner's complex roles at the Lancaster Watch Company were his projects for developing real estate in the immediate vicinity of the new factory. In March 1878, he purchased a tract of land adjoining the Lancaster Watch Company; shortly thereafter, he laid out lots on the south side of Columbia Pike under the name "Cottage Place". About this time he built for himself an elegant mansion near the southwest corner of the present Ryder Avenue and Columbia Avenue. This mansion, demolished less than fifteen years ago, was a large, three-story Italianate-style building with central pediment and elaborate verandas. To the west, he erected a row of mansard-roof houses which still stand.

Despite the importance of his inventions and the extent of his business interests, Abraham Bitner was inextricably tangled with the ill-fated finances of the Lancaster Watch Company. The failure of the Keystone Standard Watch Company in 1890 was the first step in wiping out Bitner's fortune. In the same month as the new Hamilton Watch Company was incorporated in 1892, Bitner transferred his remaining properties to his assignees. For the next two years he was a florist, and in 1894 be became the Lancaster representative of the Crew-Levisk Oil Company of Philadelphia. Shortly after the turn of this century, he retired. On May 20^th, 1906, Abraham Bitner died at St. Joseph Hospital, the victim of a paralytic stroke.

The three Bitner Brothers - Abraham, C. Augustus, and John R. - probably were the most remarkable "success story" of Lancaster in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Their fortunes were made quickly, and for several decades it appeared that all their businesses were blessed with instant success. The Bitners lived in elegance, with servants and fine carriages; their lifestyle was a model, if not even a source of envy, for the entire community. The surviving house of John R. Bitner at 416 North Duke Street (built c. 1873 - 1874) gives some idea of the prominence and influence of the family in the late nineteenth century. However, the fortunes of the Bitners left as quickly as they had appeared. To the contemporaries, the failure of the Bitners may have been more stunning then the bankruptcy of the Lancaster Watch Company. Even today, a very elderly Lancastrian recalls that Mrs. Bitner had to be led away from the Columbia Avenue mansion after it was lost in 1892.

Godfried M. Zahm

Godfried M. Zahm's grandfather came to Lancaster from Germany in the 1700's. His father was a well-known court crier for Lancaster County. Godfried M. Zahm was born on East Orange Street in Lancaster on February 4^th, 1817. He was apprenticed to the Lancaster City clockmakers, Philip Shreiner and Martin Shreiner Jr., in 1832. Six years later, Zahm opened a store at 11 North Queen Street (old numbering system) in Lancaster; later, he moved his business to a building at the southwest corner of Penn Square. Zahm was a clock and watchmaker, a repairer of watches and musical instruments, a silversmith, and a jeweler.

Zahm's chief role in the founding of the Lancaster Watch Company was his part in supervising the erection of the 1874-1875 building. In fact, Zahm's obituary in the Lancaster Daily New Era for March 15^th, 1895 noted that he had superintended the construction of both the Eastern Market and the "Watch Factory", plus doing " … a good deal of building in his time … " Possibly Zahm's interest in building was another facet of an obviously versatile personality. However, it is also important to note that both his first and second wives (Susan and Malvina, respectively) were the daughters of a prominent Lancaster joiner of the first half of the nineteenth century, Jacob Hensel. Further, Zahm's sister was married to Godlieb Sener (1800-1877), one of Lancaster's leading dealers in building supplies. In turn the Sehner-Sener family had been joiners, cabinetmakers, and builders in Lancaster since the middle of the eighteenth century.

Some idea of Zahm's importance in the construction of the 1874-1875 factory of the Lancaster Watch Company may be perceived in the fact that contemporary accounts in Lancaster never mentioned the architect Clarence Luther Stiles, but frequently noted "Mr. Zahm." Godfried Zahm also was important, in his own right, as a developer of real estate on West Chestnut Street in Lancaster. At his own expense, he extended the gas and water lines westward in the city. In fact, his obituary stated that the "credit for extending the city to the northwest" was due to him "more than any one man … " Zahm died at his 1879-1880 residence, an extant greenstone front house at 445 West Chestnut Street, on March 14^th, 1895.

The History and Evolution of the Buildings

The original building of the Adams and Perry Watch Company was the brick structure, now the eastern clock tower with its adjacent wings. The present structure has been modified by the addition of a story, the extension of the tower, the updating of the entrance in the early 1900's, plus a change in the profile of the mansard roof of the clock tower. However, much of both the spirit and general form of the building designed in 1874 still remains. This building, in the Second Empire Style, was designed by the Chicago architect, Clarence Luther Stiles. Although there is no precise documentation which explains how a Chicago-based architect designed a factory in Lancaster, it is known that Stiles traveled extensively in the eastern United States in the 1870's. Born in Elgin, Illinois in 1852, Stiles commenced studying architecture with three Chicago architects at the age of eighteen. In addition to the watch factory, Stiles also designed Lancaster's Boys' High School in 1875; this school was razed to clear the site for the present Fulton School on West Orange Street in the second decade of the twentieth century. Apparently, Stiles spent most of his working career in Chicago; in the early 1890s, he kept his office at 115 Dearborn Street in Chicago. Whereas the architect for the original building was from Chicago, most of the craftsmen and suppliers of materials for the building that was finished by July 1875 were local. The supervisor of construction was one of the chief promoters of the new enterprise, the Lancaster jeweler and watchmaker G. M. Zahm. There were minor additions to this original building in 1879 and 1881.

The incorporation of the Hamilton Watch Company in 1892 marked not only the beginning of financial prosperity for the company; it also heralded a period of growth for the plant itself. Between 1892 and 1920, the expansion of the building designed by C. L. Stiles defined the patterns of future growth for the subsequent additions. The additions of this period established the primacy of certain features of the original building that would be copied or adapted in later construction. These features included the use of red brick for the walls, the definition of wall surfaces into regular bays by means of brick buttresses, the use of simple corbelled brick cornices, and the visual prominence given to the mansard-roofed clock towers. The first addition made by the then-new Hamilton Watch Company was the completion of a three-story east wing, with ten bays facing Columbia Avenue, in 1893. In 1901, some brick walks were installed around the factory; these marked the first step in the evolving landscaping of the total site. In 1902, a western wing, three stories high and sixteen bays long, was added at the cost of $11,500. This addition was erected by the Lancaster contractor/builder, Herman Wohlsen (1861 - 1941). All structures were enlarged to a full four-story height by the Lancaster builder George Gessel in 1905. About five years later, there was an extension near the center of the north elevation done by Samuel H. Bally of Lancaster; this improvement cost $6566. A large wing to the north, along with expanded office facilities, was built in 1911 at the cost of $16,138.09. During the next two years, the building was further enlarged with an extension, four stories in height, reaching fifty-two feet to the west, along with a two-story addition to the north. This work was done by Samuel H. Bally; it cost $8915. This period of expansion culminated with the construction of the west clock tower in 1916. The west clock tower was designed to match the existing eastern clock tower, which had been modified to its present appearance about 1905. There is a vague verbal tradition that the noted Lancaster architect C. Emlen Urban (1863-1939) might have been involved in designing the 1916 west clock tower, but no documentation is now known which in any way confirms this belief. At present, it appears that the additions of the 1892 - 1920 period were the works of Lancaster contractor/builders who were sympathetic to the original 1874 designs by the architect C. L. Stiles. The completion of the west tower gave the very long east-west axis of the additive building a sense of balance and articulation.

The fifteen years following 1920 were marked by several additions that followed the basic design of the earlier work, plus a marked improvement in the landscaping of the grounds facing Columbia Avenue. In 1923, there was a three-story addition to the east, costing about $5000. In 1925, the rear portion of the 1916 clock tower was extended a distance of one hundred thirty-five feet to the north. This three-story northern wing, reaching to Wheatland Avenue, was completed by March 1926. Three years later, the main east/west axis of the building was extended to the west; the completion of this stage of work brought the western elevation of the structure within sixty feet of Race Avenue. These various additions of the 1920s not only continued the pattern of following the design and materials of earlier work; they also tended to define the increasingly limited areas for any future construction. Equally important in this time was the elaboration of plantings in the grounds along Columbia Avenue. These plantings included shrubbery, many varieties of trees, and handsome dogwoods. In 1924, the Lancaster historian H. M. J. Klein praised these "beautiful grounds" as having the character of "a college campus", thus being " … an object of great interest to the thousands of motorists who travel over the Lincoln Highway every year."

The four main additions made to the complex of buildings between 1936 and 1963 were characterized by a sense of respect for the materials and scale of the existing facility, united with an awareness of new technology and current architectural styles. In 1936, the large northeastern factory wing, a four-story building utilizing structural steel supports and metal framed windows, was erected at a cost of about $70,000. There were two extensive additions to the complex of buildings in 1941: the four-story factory wing near the northwestern corner of the property, and the four story Office Building, which was situated directly south of the main east/west axis of the buildings, facing Columbia Avenue. Both these buildings were designed by the Pittsburg architectural firm of Prack and Prack; their total cost was about $425,000. For the Office Building, the Art Deco (or Moderne) style of the overall exterior design, and particularly the composition-stone abstracted ornamentation at the fourth story and central entry, are noteworthy. This decoration represents a rather late, but competent, handling of the Art Deco Style in a context sympathetic to the earlier buildings. Finally, in 1963, the western addition, along Race Avenue, was completed. This building was designed in 1961 by Buchart Associates, an architectural and engineering firm with offices in York and Lancaster. The plain, windowless wall surfaces of this building give evidence of the influence, albeit restrained, of the International Style. However, the use of red brick, the division of wall planes into regular bays, and the height of the roofline give this 1961-1963 addition a character that complements the other structures.

The large, and somewhat obtrusive water tower was authorized for construction by the Board of Hamilton Watch Company in 1934.

Site Description

The complex of buildings at HMW Industries, originally called the Lancaster Watch Company and often commonly called Hamilton Watch, is an aggregate of more than two dozen structures situated in that block bounded by Columbia Avenue, West End Avenue, Race Avenue, and Wheatland Avenue. The main block follows the east-west axis of Columbia Avenue. The roofline is articulated by prominent clock towers with mansard roofs made of sheet cooper. The overall configuration of these buildings resembles the letter "E" due to the presence of three major wings that project to the north. On the south elevation, midway between the east and west clock towers, is a projecting Office Building. The general height of all major buildings is four stories, with high basements and corbelled brick cornices. All exterior walls are built of red brick laid in common bond with light mortar joints. With the exception of the mansard roofs of the two clock towers, all other roofs are either flat or low-pitched gable structures. In most of the buildings pre-dating 1920, there are wood window frames with a variety of wood window sash: six-over-six, four-oyer four, two-over-two. In these buildings pre-dating 1920, the window openings are spanned by true arches and segmental arches. For the buildings postdating c. 1930, most window openings are rectangular, with metal sash; exceptions are the one-over-one sash of the 1941 Office Building. For all major elevations of the buildings predating c. 1930; brick buttresses divide the exterior wall surfaces into regular bays.

The historical and visual integrity of these buildings is to be understood as a group dating from 1874 to 1963 that mirrored four architectural styles: the mill/warehouse style of the nineteenth century; the Second Empire Style; the Art Deco or Moderne; and the International Style. Many design features of the original 1874-1875 building, now the expanded eastern clock tower section, have influenced the harmonious development of the later structures. Elements of that were adapted or copied in the later structures include the use of red brick, the division of the walls into regular bays, the corbelled brick cornices, and the clock tower. Even the 1941 Office Building (Art Deco) and the 1963: western addition (Late International Style) echo the building materials, roofline, scale, and division of bays seen in the earlier parts. This design unity is further enhanced by the fact that the complex is entirely contained within one city block. Finally, the trees and plantings, the oldest of which date from 1910 to 1924, give a park-like atmosphere to the expansive facade of the building. The basic structural system of the buildings dating c. 1874 - 1935 consists of weight-bearing masonry walls with wood beams. Structural steel and exterior brick walls were employed for the buildings dating from 1936-1963. All the interior spaces are utilitarian, befitting the functional nature of the buildings.